The Woodcock Foundation accepts proposals by invitation only and prefers to receive proposals and reports electronically. The Foundation does not require that reports and proposals follow a specific format, but below you’ll find a guide to the information we request and aspects of your work we seek to understand through your materials. If you’d like to follow a template, we recommend the New York/ New Jersey Common Application Form, which is accepted by many funders and may therefore offer efficiency in managing submissions to multiple prospective funders.

Proposal and Report Guidance

We request that you provide a brief narrative overview along with a financial accounting of the grant. Please submit your most recent audited financial statements, and/or unaudited financials if you haven’t had an audit within the past year. For the narrative portion, the Foundation is also happy to accept an annual report, a report or proposal recently written for another funder, or other similar materials that address the topics described below rather than a report customized for the Foundation. If you’re submitting a report and proposal together, they can be submitted as separate documents or together as one cohesive document. If you prefer to offer a narrative update verbally, please reach out to staff at least a month before your scheduled report due date to schedule a meeting or phone call.

For both written and verbal reports, we are interested in understanding your organization’s activities and progress during the grant period, with a focus on any programs or areas of work in which the Foundation has expressed particular interest. This is often indicated in our most recent grant letter. We’re particularly interested to know about any new and different work our grantees have engaged in, as well as efforts that represent innovation and leadership. We do not require that you address the following questions directly, but rather, we suggest taking them into consideration as you decide what to share with us in your report:

• What risks have you taken, and how did they turn out?
• Have you piloted/tested any new programs or bodies of work?
• How have you innovated upon your existing programs?
• What have you been doing to advance leadership, both within your organization and in support of the broader field in which you work? If possible, please provide examples of how you collaborate with other organizations.
• In what ways has your work contributed to systemic change?
• How does your organization think about equity, diversity, and inclusion? What policies and practices do you have in place, both with regard to the impact of your work and your own leadership and hiring practices?
• What have been the biggest challenges for your organization, and what steps are you taking to overcome them?

For proposal submissions, we suggest you address the same questions listed above, but with an eye toward the future. We request that you also share the following information:

• What is your organization’s mission?
• What is the geographic scope of your work, and who do you consider to be the population you serve?
• What is the size of your staff (full-time, part-time, volunteer/intern)?
• Who are your current funders/supporters? If you have a fee-for-service or other earned revenue model, please describe it and indicate the portion of your budget it covers.
• How do you evaluate your work? What are you measuring now, and what do you plan to measure in the future?